Global: Groups

Description

Groups define collections of entities. These enable a model to be separated into smaller components, with each component represented as a group on the group tree. For example, a building could be grouped according to its floors; the elements belonging to each floor could then be assigned to the respective groups.

The group tree is hierarchical and may be nested to any depth by the creation of sub-groups (or child groups); a group may contain any number of child groups in addition to entities. For example, the floor of a building could consist of multiple sub-components such as a floor slab, columns, a lift core, and so on. Each of these sub-components could be placed in a separate child group of the (parent) floor group.

Groups can be given meaningful names and their position in the group tree can be changed by moving the group to any desired location on the tree.

Groups can be used for a number of purposes including for showing and hiding parts of a model, for filtering results, for selecting, for defining stages for staged analysis, and so on.

All entity types except for nodes and vertices are assigned to a group. Every entity in the model must belong to one, and only one, group. Nodes implicitly belong to the groups of the elements that reference them, and vertices implicitly belong to the groups of the faces that reference them. This means that a node, for example, will be contained in multiple groups when elements from different groups reference the same node. This feature is used in The TEXT Tab, whereby node-based quantities can be listed based on the groups of the entities that reference the nodes.

All Straus7 models have at least one group, the default group at the root of the group tree.  This group can be renamed, but cannot be deleted.

Groups vs Entity Sets

Groups are conceptually similar to Global: Entity Sets as both represent a collection entities.  The main differences between groups and entity sets are:

Dialog

Group tree

Tree structure showing all groups defined in the model.

A group may be shown or hidden by toggling its visibility state. The cube symbol to the left of the group name signifies the visibility state: visible groups are marked with a yellow cube, while inactive groups are marked with a grey cube. The group visibility can be toggled by a left-click on the icon, or by pressing the Enter or space bar keys on the selected group. See also Straus7 Interface: Group Trees.

Groups with child groups may be collapsed or expanded by clicking on the - / + symbols next to the group name.

The count of beams, plates, bricks, links, faces and paths in the selected group is shown directly below the group tree.

Docking Options

Docked status of group dialog.

New child group

Create a new child group under the currently selected group.

Clone selected group

Copies the currently selected group and all of its child groups. The copy is placed under the same parent as the selected group (i.e., it becomes a sibling of the selected group).

Delete groups

All groups except for the root group can be deleted.

Edit group name

Group colour

The colour square shown indicates the colour of the current group.

The following image illustrates the difference between own colour (left image) and parent colour for child groups of floor groups (right image). This display can be set by clicking Set parent colour level - 2.

Assign selected entities to selected group

Selected entities are assigned to the selected group, and therefore will no longer belong to their former groups.

Set groups according to stage definition


Sets the group visibility based on the selected stage definition. Only groups that are active in the selected stage are made visible in the group tree.

Moving Groups

Groups can be moved via standard drag-and-drop techniques using the mouse, or by using the four arrows as described below.

Show / Hide / Invert all groups

Selects all, clears all or inverts the visibility state of all groups.

Invert selected group

Invert the visibility state of the selected group, without inverting the state of its child groups.

Show/hide groups by name

Opens a search dialog to toggle the visibility state of groups that can be identified by name.

See Global: Show/Hide Groups by Name.

Update / Autoupdate

If set, changes to the visibility status of any group are immediately reflected in the model window.

If not set, changes are not reflected in the model window until the Groups dialog is closed or Update is clicked.

Right Click Menu

The menu can be activated by right clicking anywhere in the group tree. In addition to functions described above, the menu has the following additional functions.

Toggle

Expand

Collapse

Show level - 1/2/3/4/5

Expands groups in the tree, showing parent and child groups to the selected level.

Copy

Block-edit Group Names and Colours Dialog

Allows for quicker renaming and selection of colours of groups in a two-column grid format.

Level

Level of the group tree to show in the grid.

Group Tree

Tree structure showing available groups of specified level in the model.

Group Colour / Group Name

Colours and names of all groups at the specified level. Colours and names can be quickly changed here.

See Also